A little while ago, some images leaked online for The Bad Batch Season 3. While these spoilers did not reveal too much, they show that Omega’s story will incorporate a time jump within the season itself. But these Bad Batch spoilers show something even more interesting. They indicate that Omega is truly going through Maureen Murdock’s The Heroine’s Journey.
I made a video for these Bad Batch season 3 leaks here:
A Brief Review of Omega and Her Heroine’s Journey
My very first blog for The Bad Batch concerned the topic of Omega and the Heroine’s Journey. I wrote about it extensively here.
This article was written at the start of season 1 of the Bad Batch and was based on preliminary observations that Omega’s story had a Snow White fairy tale motif, just as Ezra’s story and character had an Aladdin motif in Star Wars Rebels.
I had wondered if Omega would eventually go through the steps of the Heroine’s Journey as outlined by Maureen Murdock below.
The Bad Batch season 1 begins with Omega separating from the only feminine she knows, her complicated mother figure of Nala Se. She quickly aligns with her brothers (the Knights or Dwarves in the Snow White/Dead Princess fairy tale), and identifies with them.
Crosshair, Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Echo represent different aspects of Omega’s animus. Both Season 1 and 2 of the Bad Batch have Omega going on trials.
Omega becomes a competent young soldier and treasure hunter in her own right, experiencing the boon of success. However, a soldier’s life means loss of brothers. Echo leaves briefly to pursue a higher calling with Rex, and this shatters her stability.
Omega’s world is further upended when Tech dies on Eriadu, Tarkin’s homeworld. The Bad Batch season 2 ends with Omega and her brothers being forced to leave their brief paradise of Pabu, and Omega’s abduction by Hemlock.
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Nala Se the Creatrix and Mother
And so Omega is forced to return to her mother Nala Se. The Kaminoan woman that is both ruthless creator of life, and yet her own devoted mother. Nala Se is at once both the gentle and doomed fairytale mother that speaks her child into being (hair as black as this raven’s feather, lips as red as this drop of blood, a litany of desired traits), and the cruel mother or stepmother that punishes the lone daughter’s brothers, changing them into crows or swans.
However, Nala Se isn’t quite the fairytale Evil Queen either. She has never been malicious or sadistic. Her cruelty is both born of her own culture, that treats clones as property and business, and is mirrored by the many humans in the Galaxy Far Far Away who see no issue with creating armies of clones.
In fact, I have argued before that Nala Se is a mirror character to Jango Fett. Both are parents who end up having children in their own image, whether as a medical assistant, or as a bounty hunter. And both Nala Se and Jango Fett treat all the other clones as livestock.
This is quite shocking with Jango Fett’s character, as these clones are his own kin. But nonetheless, Boba Fett, the Alpha, is the only clone that gets to be a son, and A Real Boy. Jango’s dismissal of his own sons will create emotional ambivalence and turmoil within Boba Fett down the line.
And for Omega, she’s had to watch Nala Se run experiments that appear to have traumatized her, yet she loves Nala Se all the same. She cries when putting away the jewelry from her mother.
Where the Story Is Headed for the Bad Batch Season 3
From what we’ve seen in the clips of the Bad Batch season 3 trailer, there is a time jump. Omega is shown with the short hair she had at the end of season 2. In one scene, she appears to be wearing an Imperial scientist uniform with this hair. She speaks to Crosshair in this scene.
But other clips show Omega’s very interesting fate. She has much longer hair–long enough to indicate she spends at least several months on Mount Tantiss if not more. Her hair is long enough to be pulled back, and in one image she looks much more like her sister Emerie Karr.
So what does this mean for the Heroine’s Journey? It means that Omega is reconnecting with feminine as represented by her sister Emerie Karr, and her mother Nala Se. This means a healing of the split between Omega and Nala Se.
The prescence of Emerie Karr indicates the sort of clones Nala Se may have intended with Omega. I’m certain we’ll get more backstory into Omega’s creation, and that of her brothers and sister. If Omega’s brothers are the usual soldiers, then Omega’s sister may have been intended as thinkers and researchers.
Season 1 of the Bad Batch tells us over and over that Omega is curious and a strategist. We’ve seen Omega’s talents as a soldier on display for two seasons, but never as a researcher. And that’s the job Nala Se appears to have intended for her daughter.
The Bad Batch season 3 will show us a reconnection and melding of the talents Omega has learned, both those associated with the masculine (her brothers), and those associated with the feminine (Nala and Emerie).
And what of the healing of the wounded masculine? I wonder if this would represent Omega’s efforts to save Crosshair.
While the only images we’ve seen so far likely cover the first few episodes, it indicates a fascinating story for Omega.
While Omega doesn’t seem to be happy working as a research or medical assistant — she looks as if she hates her job during a scan scene–I don’t think she hates all aspects.
In fact, I can see Omega working alongside Emerie and Nala Se to potentially foil some of Emperor Palpatine’s plans, or at the very least, save some clones’ lives.
The Frozen in Carbonite Theory? Maybe it’s Just a Mountain
Returning to my first blog article on Omega’s Heroine’s Journey, I postulated that Omega could be frozen in carbonite or lost and hidden in some other way.
I now think Omega’s time on Mt. Tantiss is the Glass Casket of our hidden maiden. As I stated in my previous article, the scene of the maiden be revived by her animus figure, will not be a romantic story, but be a brother who saves her. I would LOVE this to be Boba Fett who finds her, but I’m not holding my breath on that.
However, Hunter and remaining siblings will be searching for their anima sister ensconced a way in a mountain. But Omega will not be a sleeping girl in a glass casket, but actively working on her own, learning the talents of her Mother and Sister, but using them to her advantage, combined with the talents learned from her Brothers.
Over all, I am glad to see The Bad Batch season 3 will lean into the Heroine’s Journey for Omega.
